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Before anyone says it, this is absolutely listenable at 128kbps. Also this is one of my favorite releases of the year. Full review to come.

So I really love this album. Each song is very different from the next and they're all full of emotion and musical expertise. The electronics are scaled back a bit, but they're used more as another instrument and accents the rest, instead of being an overbearing focal point of the songs and I think it works better. The Sights is a great upbeat song with a happy chorus and solid use of the accented electronics I mentioned. Live Outside is more of the same and has a good message behind it and it definitely grew on me from being meh about it when it first released. Take My Country Back has one of Rou's best vocal performances imo, and the bridge during it is so cool and vibey, powerful chorus too. Airfield is beautiful, and reminds me of Dear Future Historians; some GREAT lyrics in here. Rabble Rouser is the only song to have electronics at the forefront but it was a nice change of pace and the song is just a great listen. Shinrin-yoku has great trumpets at the beginning and the whole nature/air related lyrics actually made me feel refreshed. Also the brief heavy part at the end was awesome. Undercover Agents utilizes the synths well and is just a staple ES song. I love The Revolt of the Atoms because of how cool the concept is and how well it's written, but maybe that's because I'm a chemist. Lastly, An Ode to Lost Jigsaw Pieces is just a simply beautiful ES song and Rou packs so much emotion into it. Lyrics like "I'll wait this out" and "we all cope somehow" are masterfully delivered. I can't say I'll like this more than Mindsweep but I still love it and will probably make my top 10. Solid 9/10 from these guys.

This album is definitely very different for them and has the least musical variation between the individual songs, but it's a huge grower. I was very underwhelmed at first but now that I listen to this album for what it is instead of for what I expected, it's really fucking good

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You know, it sounds different, but hey, they are Shikari. This band is about experiments with sounds. I, as a fan of Shikari, can say after first listening that this album is very good. Take it with other vibe than previous albums.

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There are a few songs that are better than expected, and there are a few songs that are incredibly boring. A few of them are growers, but this is the first Enter Shikari record that strikes me as incredibly underwhelming at first listen. Even The Mindsweep's weakest songs still struck me as meticulous and brilliant. There are songs on this record that make me wonder if they were written purely as filler.